The US Amateur Team Championships have a fun,
light-hearted atmosphere that you rarely see at competitive weekend events. The
action begins in just a few days, from February 18-21 with the US East in (Parsippany, NJ), West (Southern California) , North
(Northbrook, Illinois), and South (Orlando, Florida). Each team must consist of four
players, plus an optional alternate. The champion teams of each tournament will
then face each other in an on-line playoff to determine the 2011 U.S. Amateur
Team Champion. 2200 is the magic number, which the average rating of the four
highest rated team members cannot exceed.As usual CLO will bring you coverage from each event. Check out
some preview highlights below including thoughts from our reporters in the West
(Kostya Kavutskiy) and the North (Andrea Rosen.)
East
The US Chess Scoop will be at the US Amateur Team East, so look for interviews with some of your
favorite professional and amateur players on CLO next week.

Additionally, Al Lawrence will be reporting from the
Amateur Team East in Parsippany, New
Jersey, for both Chess
Life Magazine and Chess
Life Online. Beginning Saturday, he'll be sending
updates and photos to CLO. If you're playing (and who in the East isn't?), find
Al to tell him your team story and show him your team's best game.

Al Lawrence

There are always surprises at the USATE, but one very strong team will include: GM Robert Hess, Zach Weiner, Emily
Tallo and Richard Rivera. Robert's devotion to the US Amateur Team East and his
team-mates is obvious. He is arriving home in New York from the Aeroflot Open
in Moscow on the evening of February 18th and then is off the
following morning to play with his team-mates.

Robert told CLO, "We are looking to repeat our
performance from last year (we tied 1-3, 3rd on tiebreaks with 5.5/6).
Board 2 seems like it will be our biggest test, but Zach is always rather
reliable (and not just because he is one of my best friends!!). At around 2000,
Emily will be outrated in a few games, but OK, rating is just a three or four
digit number. We all have faith in her. Our team is always one of the
most fun, we have a blast no matter the result."

Another team to watch will be a formidable all-female team
consisting of Laura Ross, Abby Marshall, Elizabeth Vicary and Allana Katz (not
to be confused with NM Alena Kats or Elina Kats, who was incorrectly listed as a team member before).

West by Kostya Kavutskiy
The 28th Annual U.S Amateur Team West
will take place at the lovely Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills, CA from
February 19-21.So far there are 28
teams already registered in the West, with more sure to come. The favorites
are:

There are a couple of things I really look forward
to every year. The first is the environment-we're talking about a tournament
here in which there are no monetary prizes. Prizes in the form of trophies and
chess clocks will be given out to the Top 3 teams, as well as the best teams
U2100, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400/unr, the best college, industrial, junior,
and senior teams, and the best individual performers on their respective
boards. This means that over 100 players will be playing just for the fun and
excitement of a team tournament. Furthermore, the element of playing with a team
does add another level of pressure. Win or lose, your play affects your team
members greatly, so a high-level of chess is always seen throughout the
tournament.

Please visit scchess.com for all info regarding the
2011 USATW, and I hope to see you there!

North by Andrea Rosen The U.S. Amateur
Team North will be the second major team chess event in Illinois this
month.And while it will draw players
from several nearby states, it won't come close to matching the attendance at the
just concluded Illinois high school team championship in Peoria.That tournament, with more than 1,000 high
school players, is one
of the largest team chess events in the world.

Still, the USAT
North is shaping up to be a nice event, and always a player favorite.For the first time in four years, the
tournament will be in the Chicago area instead of Milwaukee.And for the first time in many years, it
doesn't conflict with the Illinois high school tournament.Those two factors will likely lead to better
attendance than its seen in the past few years, with organizers Tim Just and
Glenn Panner expecting between 30 and 40 teams.

My household will
be contributing to that increased attendance.My son Eric, a high school junior, will be leading a team of three
younger players: Apurva Virkud of Michigan, and Zhaozhi Li and Matthew Stevens
of Illinois.They're calling themselves
the 4G Network: No Dropped Pawns.The G
stands for Illinois Grandmaster Dmitry Gurevich, who coaches most of them and
will be their team coach this weekend.

It's been eight
years since Eric played his first Amateur Team event at age 9, when a group of
older kids recruited him to be their Board 1 in the reserve section, and he led
them to a second place finish.(see
photo above).It's still one of his best
chess memories.

They'll have
their work cut out for them this weekend, as several powerhouse teams have
formed, including the top-rated Wisconsin Chess Academy (2188), with GM Friedel
leading a team with two national masters, Erik Santarius and Alex Betaneli, at
boards 2 and 3.Check back next week
for a full report on all the action.

South by Melinda J. Matthews
The US Amateur Team South will take place in the always-popular Orlando
metro area, this time in the downtown Sonesta Hotel. Seventeen teams
are pre-registered in the Open section and five in the Scholastic
section. Get more basic info on the event at http://usats2011.eventbrite.com/ and find a list of pre-registered players on the Central Florida website.

The Open section includes Armageddon Your Pieces (2186.3) – Javad Maharramzade, Peter Dyson, Jeremy Mandelkern and Matt Helfst; Team Storch (2147.3) – John Nardandrea, Lawrence Storch, Makaio Krienke, Steve Chakis and Charles Hall; and The Warriors (1905.3) – Luciano Aguilar, Paul Muro, Hunter Rockley and Arturo L Saliva. Of course, there’s my personal favorite, Team Nobody (2171.5), featuring Robert Perez, Daniel Gurevich, Dalton Perrine and my son, Nicky Rosenthal.
Good luck to all at the US Amateur Team Championships. If you have a story or game to share, please send to [email protected] And if you can't make it this year, rest assured you'll have more than enough material to vicariously enjoy on CLO.